Big Changes (Warriors 118, Clippers 97)

Somewhere on a Maui beach, a Hall of Fame coach is probably smiling. Mark Jackson went small in Game 4 — starting Draymond Green for Jermaine O’Neal — and the Warriors responded instantly. And while the move absolutely draws from the Don Nelson school of turning an opponent’s strength into a weakness with targeted mismatches, there’s a twist to Jackson’s line-up change. Green for O’Neal gives the Warriors better match-ups on both offense and defense. By inserting Green and sliding David Lee to center, Jackson gets his best healthy low-post defender on Blake Griffin and shifts Lee to the least dangerous offensive player on the court, DeAndre Jordan. Green battled with Griffin all night, holding him to a relatively tame game (21 points, but 4 turnovers and only 6 rebounds) and Lee did a tremendous job on Jordan, keeping him away from his favorite looks (lobs and put-backs). As a whole, the Warriors’ defense was more focused and aggressive. But the improvement was nothing compared to what the team gained on offense.

After 10 quarters of struggling to generate any sort of ball-movement and fluid offense, Jackson went small in the second half of Game 3 and suddenly got Stephen Curry back into the mix. In Game 4, Curry and the Warriors picked up where they left off — making the most of having four players on the court with Curry capable of flashing to the perimeter to set screens and draw defenders away from the basket. Curry commented after Game 4 that he immediately felt more comfortable setting his defenders up to be screened with the smaller line-up — likely because Green (who was setting many of the picks) and others were getting there faster, giving the Clippers less time to trap Curry in the corners. Once Curry got a little daylight, he unleashed the type of offensive attack Warriors fans had been hoping to see from the very beginning of the series. He had a 17-point first quarter, knocking down 5 threes. When he wasn’t pulling up, he was hitting teammates either cutting to the basket or in the high post. He logged 2 only assists in the quarter, but easily had another 2 or 3 passes leading to assists. Ultimately, the Warriors finally played an offense that accentuates their strengths: moving the ball to their shooters for open perimeter looks rather than dumping it into the post for isolation plays. The Warriors kept coming at the Clippers — 18-4 and 14-4 runs in the first quarter alone — and never looked back.

The improvements on offense held up through pretty much the entire game. Even when Curry cooled down in the second and third quarters (going 3-9), the rest of the Warriors picked up the scoring load. With Jackson’s small line-up, Jordan and Griffin were forced to follow Lee and Green to the perimeter, opening up the lane for penetration (including likely the finest in-traffic dunk of Klay Thompson’s career). When the Clippers started collapsing to cut off penetration, it left the other Warriors wide open for threes. The team finally rediscovered the inside-outside game it had played during the best stretches of basketball. The Warriors’ swarming defense just poured fuel on the fire. Curry successfully ran at Griffin in double-team situations, forcing the ball out of his hands. Green smothered Paul on several possessions at the perimeter. Big on small; small on big — it wasn’t conventional, but it was effective. The Warriors scored 26 points off the Clippers’ 19 turnovers — including several easy transition baskets that had been all but missing from the prior games.

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Given the controversy swirling around Donald Sterling and the Clippers, it’s hard to separate the basketball and non-basketball causes of LA’s inability to slow down the Warriors or punish them for going small. Doc Rivers showed a lot of leadership in his post-game comments — stating unequivocally that the loss was on him, that he failed to prepare the Clippers for the Warriors’ changes and that they can’t play the “right” way if he’s not coaching them properly. It was an admirable attempt to deflect media attention from a group of players suddenly under an international spotlight for non-basketball reasons. But it’s hard to tell how much truth there is to it. Rivers’ game plan wasn’t crazy — he had to test whether Green would be able to slow down Griffin and there was no reason to adjust his defense until the Warriors found a way to crack it. Regardless of their game-plan, the Clippers seemed to lack the same energy and execution of Games 2 and 3. From the opening tip, the Warriors were faster, more physical and more focused. There’s no way to isolate whether the difference in the game was the Sterling controversy, the Jackson adjustments or something mundane like a sore CP3 hamstring. But whatever the underlying causes, the Clippers team the Warriors successfully stared down in Game 4 looked a lot less daunting than the opponent they faced just a few days earlier.

We’ll find out in 48 hours whether the momentum change in the series is a blip or a trend. But the Warriors have a lot of reasons to be more optimistic about their chances:

Andre Iguodala had his best game in a long, long time. He was his usually tenacious self on defense (his absence was felt whenever Harrison Barnes had to cover J.J. Redick), but found an offensive groove that has been evading him. His shooting percentage from the field (6-8) is only surpassed in impressiveness by his percentage from the line (8-10), where he’s struggled of late. He did a wonderful job throughout the game making sure that the Warriors didn’t just lean on Curry’s hot hand. His distribution to Thompson, Green, Lee and others was a subtle but crucial part of the team’s offensive resurgence.

Harrison Barnes — who couldn’t throw a basketball into the Bay a few weeks ago — went 6-7 from the field (2-3 from three) and was an integrated piece of the offense (4 assists). It was above all other things a natural game for Barnes. He wasn’t awkwardly trying to create something off an isolation post-up. He was running, slashing, lurking — all within the flow of the game and rarely putting the ball on the floor. If the Warriors can keep him in this type of groove, he’ll be a huge boost for the remainder of the series. When Thompson fouled out in the fourth quarter, it was an inflection point for the Warriors. Barnes stepped up and helped them close out the game. A productive Barnes will empower Jackson to let Klay be as aggressive as possible on defense, knowing that there’s a viable plan B.

David Lee’s game looks relatively quiet on the box score (15 points, 6 assists), but it was just what the Warriors needed on the court. He wasn’t forcing action, as he did in Games 1 and 2. He let the ball find him on offense, leading to several easy dunks or lay-ups. He struggled a couple of times when he was matched up in single coverage on defense against Griffin, but generally showed a good sense or spacing and awareness against Jordan. There were no back-door lobs or thunderous put-backs. Jordan’s ineffectiveness drove Rivers to play Glen Davis big first-half minutes, giving the Warriors an even bigger match-up advantage.

Who didn’t play for the Warriors was as notable as who played. Jackson tightened up his rotation, giving no time to Crawford and barely any to Speights. The hockey substitutions were nowhere to be seen, with at least two starters on the court at all times before the curtain calls started in the fourth. As a result, the Warriors played a more consistent game, weathering Clipper runs and avoiding dead periods of their own. Another adjustment long overdue.

Winning in the playoffs often comes down to making adjustments. On Sunday, Jackson finally made the one that the Warriors desperately needed. Rivers will respond on Tuesday, but it’s not clear there’s an adjustment that can account for the distractions swirling around his team. Events beyond basketball have overtaken this series, pushing it into uncharted territory. But on the court, one thing was clear in Game 4: the Warriors may be out-manned and under-sized, but their confidence is growing.

My fave was toward the end, when he blocks out on Griffin so that the RB simply falls to Lee. Lee would do well to study that and learn to do the same.

jsl165

Still, that move was a lot better than the ol’ one on five, ending with the missed, 20-foot fallaway.

jsl165

He’ll have his guys primed. We’ve got to be ready for an all-out war from the get-go.

monsta

buuuut….. you didn’t read it

jsl165

As a runner, I’ve worn a lot of UA and Brooks running gear for years — best stuff out there. But UA did make those speed-skating suits that Team USA claimed slowed them down in the Olympics. And they’ve yet to make a running shoe that can hold a candle to Brooks Pure Flows.

But I’ve had my concerns about Nike since the child labor episodes of the 90′s. Good thing their running shoes are so bad.

jsl165

There’s more here than meets the eye.

earl monroe

No matter what the situation, if he indeed was going around taping private conversations then he is not trustworthy

What is puzzling, then, would be the Celtics’ hiring of him. Methinks there may still be more here than meets the eye. Perhaps the off-season will tell the full story.

coltraning

well, personal insults aside from you and JSL towards each other, the real buried story in this is the unanswered question as to WHY Erman did what he did. I doubt we can speculate that Lacob put him up to it, since I am sure Lacob would be sued for firing Erman. It does seem really twisted to be recording conversations. It certainly sheds light on a very justified firing. Also sheds light on Scalabrine.

coltraning

to correct the record, ONE coach was refusing to talk to ANY of the others. Scalabrine. Let’s be accurate here, whatever agenda or animus we have vis-a-vis apparently the main topic of conversation on this blog, the coaches. Too bad, cause there is a terrific series going on in the meantime…

coltraning

Yup, a classic news dump, when the entire world is focused on Silver’s press conference. I don’t believe they dumped it today as a favor to Jackson. The whole thing smells to me. Scalabrine and Erman have strong Boston connections. Scalabrine was Bob Meyer’s client and gee whiz, Erman just landed a job with LAcob’s former team, the Celtics.

coltraning

on its face it looks awfully suspicious. Frankly it stinks. Not surprising the warriors brass do it as a news dump the day the entire world is focused on Adam Silver and the NBA penalty to Sterling. When you start to piece it all together, one can speculate (and hell, all we seem to do on this is speculate, on everything from the coach’s demeanor during a TV timeout to what assistant coach was the secret mastermind behind whatever success the Ws have had).

So here is my speculation, based on circumstantial evidence. Erman was Lacob’s boy from Boston and just got rehired by the celtics. If it comes out the Erman was taping at Lacob’s (or Meyers’) behest, it will rival the Sterling scandal. It would explain a lot. If Mark Jackson discovered there was a Lacob mole in his coaching staff, well, that makes Lacob look awful. We don’t know that, but for those who say why did Erman go quietly? It could be that the Boston job was a payoff Lacob promised him so he could act “shocked, shocked” that Erman was taping. Scalabrine was also an ex-celtic by way of Lacob AND Bob Meyers was his agent. Scalabrine’s behavior was beyond the pale if what Chris Broussard is reporting is true. I am sure the Jackson-haters will come up with a justification for it, but there is none for this sort of behavior:

“Sources say the team made the move because Scalabrine exhibited a consistent pattern of disrespect toward Jackson and the other coaches. Mainly, he ignored and refused to speak with the other basketball coaches. At one point, Scalabrine went five weeks without speaking to Jackson, one source said.

Scalabrine even avoided the coaches on the team plane, sitting in a separate section, according to one source.”

I smell a rat behind this, and that rat I submit, is Joe Lacob…

Tired

Good points. The players are making their money. They don’t seem to care much about how the NBA really is until something like this happens. The model of business today treats all workers like second class citizens. Its all about huge salaries and bonuses for the top few people and slave wages for the rest of us.
it is anti union and willing to send any and all jobs overseas if possible. Its not just a plantation thing, it is an oligarchical thing. Money is what we worship, while we cut off our noses to spite our faces by putting up with it and actually revering it.

Chris L

The non-response is all yours: about whether you actually believe in what the Gospels say.

A basketball disagreement is paltry. But to distort what the Gospels actually say and teach in order to create a false religion of your own to use as a bully-whip for your own intolerant political views…that is truly deplorable.

Chris L

It’s Jackson who owes the apology.

The Gospels make unequivocal that Jackson is obligated to show Erman—let alone Scalabrine (for “a philosophical basketball disagreement”)—the same mercy and second-chance that Jackson himself was shown two years ago when he made and concealed his extortion payment while actively coaching the W’s.

coltraning

I stand to applaud Adam Silver and the NBA. They did the right thing and far more than many of us thought they would…

coltraning

So now that the NBA has done the right thing on Sterling, are they going to investigate WHY Darren Erman was taping and for WHOM and WHY he got hired by Lacob’s old team the Celtics on the day the Warriors dumped the news as to why he was fired? This is a big IF, and for the Jackson-haters out there it may be a bridge too far, but IF it turns out he was taping the team at Lacob and Meyer’s behest (the most logical explanation) it explains an awful lot about the coaching staff “dysfunction”. If I am Mark Jackson and my owner is having people secretly tape me at his request, I sue him in court and resign. You cannot be expected to work for an owner who is secretly taping you. IF Lacob did this, he is beneath contempt and is a scum who should be shunned.

Oh, I know it is a big speculative leap, and it is truly out of character for any on this board to make speculative leaps about the coaches, but there you go…simply a theory. You tell me YOUR theories as to why Erman was secretly taping players and coaches for 4 weeks?

Son of Ahmed

I’ve been saying there is no way Sterling stays. But I thought they would buy some time to make that happen. They must have covered their bases legally. Good for Silver.

knick

Idiot….are you that slow? What facts are you waiting on. Which part of “secretly recording conversations” don’t you get. Unbelievable.

knick

Jackson didn’t fire anybody Chris L. You’re accusing the wrong person. As far as Scalabrine is concerned, we both don’t know how long he acted the way he did or how many chances he was given.It’s therefore unjust on your part to accuse Jackson of any wrongdoing. The problem I see is that you and your fellow Jackson haters are so eager to smear the man’s reputation, You’re willing to grasp at anything to aid your anti Jackson crusade.

Genghis Khan

TK: “NBA commissioner Adam Silver delivered the verdict he had to, did it well, and now there’s a path to getting rid of the odious Donald Sterling”

I thought I posted the following awhile ago here but gone. Woj report gives a logical explanation for why Erman was taping conversations. I would hope we can all agree that, if true, a situation in which one asst coach feels others are trying to “undermine his game prep and relationships with players” is not healthy. So, with the Woj/Broussard information about Malone’s friction with Jackson and Scalabrine’s imposed isolation and non-talking with other coaches, can’t we agree this is “dysfunctional?” If someone Management/the Coaching Staff doesn’t think it’s dysfunctional, that’s also a problem. From Woj today:

“Erman had been the architect of a top-three NBA defense as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors until his termination three weeks ago.

In the aftermath of his departure from the Warriors, which league sources say stemmed from a single taped conversation of Warriors coaches who had been working to undermine his game preparation and relationships with players, Erman accepted the job to return to Boston, where his NBA coaching career began in 2007.”

Our Team

TK saying what should be obvious to anyone: If W’s Management asked Erman to tape the conversations, then why did Lacob fire him for it? Do you think Lacob would enjoy painting a lawsuit exposure bullseye on his back? I suspect either Erman or Warriors’ Management leaked the info today to bury the news, but that in no way means they asked Erman to violate the law by taping conversations.

SurfCity

Another thing no one is talking about. Has he retained what he taped? Will he share it with his new team? Did he share it with Rivers?

So here is my own logical orangutangian theory. Jackson has a big fat ego. And the ego ends up – like a lot of bosses – manifesting itself as he is responsible for every single good thing that occurs. If anyone here has ever been in this situation at work, you will understand the stress and frustration that this approach puts on certain individuals. Scalabrine probably had a couple of good ideas and Jax appropriated them and Scalabriine refused to talk to Jax. Erman apparently, like Malone, did a great job with the defense and these two coaches perhaps believed that Jax took too much credit for it.

Thus, the lack of communication. Again, as in an office situation, when one employee is on the outs with the boss, there is a feeling of paranoia. Often, the the other employees smell blood in the water and want to please the boss and stay on the winner’s side, so they inappropriately critique, question or collude to undermine the guy on the outs.

This is SO common in today’s work world, that it just seems logical here. Even Dilbert agrees with me.

Bob Washburn

But it is strange that Erman got a job with Lacob’s old pals in Boston. That said, I doubt Lacob put him up to it. My simian theory is below.

BTW, TK has possibly the worst instincts of any sportswriter I have ever read. I used to be part of the Warriors Mercury Forum and that place made this one look like a lovefest. But one thing EVERYone agreed on – TK is, well, a dork, who is wrong so often that one can judge the future just by reading him and going the other way.

Camelot

New Adam post….and Jerry West update. MJ latest request….

JEY

I wasn’t saying he plays by the rules

Merely that he knows what the rules should gain him by executing certain steps and procedures. Taking advantage of the rules and playing by the rules are different. Very true, Tired. I meant the former.